I'm a beginning writer and a philosophy student. Who does a lot of things, while drunk. So, when i decided to create fluff for my dwarf army, my skaven-playing friend was there, and so was beer (like the last time, when i had bretons, and we wrote it collectively >_>) - and it ended up with me, having to add my dawi force to the already existing fluff (completely crazy) about why Bretons and Skaven usually hang out together. So yeah, this is probably the most insane hold ever, and, probably, extremely hilarious. But, eh, a promise is a promise, so this is the fluff for my dwarf army. (and a little insight about the fluff of brets and my pal's rats.) EDIT: On the i swear too much - but...but, i really ment the bretonnians who are born to peasant ladies but whose father is someone of the nobility. And the nobleman's wife is, usually, not informed about this.

The tale of Rufus Enginepriest

Rufus never wanted to be a lord. He spent more days in the great engineering workshops than he did in the great halls and was more likely to watch how a rune of forging is added to a cannon than to study grudges. But, duties call, and when his father Gundar went missing in the north, while pursuing a greenskin horde that had ransacked a beer caravan, Rufus had to fulfill his duty, and take the throne of the small hold of Karak Kant. It was created relatively recently, not far from the Kislevite city of Erengrad, when his forefathers, knowing that they would be unable to retake their own old hold, decided to create a new one – more runesmiths and enigineers than warriors, they opted to start building again. And it has to be said, that the dawi of Kant hold are more than passionate about their work – what they do is more likely to come from a stroke of genius than train of thought, and they are innovative even by dawi standards – a lot of Rufus’s ancestors were expelled from engineers guild, but unlike others, they never have even thought of returning, in fact, it has become a tradition of the Enginpriest clan – to be expelled from a guild because of an invention is considered to be an honor. Karaz Kant, therefore is a home for all those dawi whom others call eccentric and even mad – and not only those with technical skills or ideas for how to make new master runes – here, philosophers and poets, writers and researchers of all kinds can be found, proud, yet peaceful – and always ready to argue about non-trivial details over a beer mug, such as what is the best way to paint a statue so that it would have proper shading effects and aestetical value. Dwarfs nonetheless, they aren’t willing to make anything shoddy, so any new philosophical theory gets seriously debated about, any new research results must be proven by repeated, observable experiments, and every piece of art must be crafted with great precision. And every gun needs to be properly field tested.
When the chaos marauders strike, dawi of Karak Kant are eager to help the manlings of erengrad to fight back, using whatever new contraptions have been smithed here – and not only than, but recently, a strange group of Bretonni knights bought a piece of land, an old keep, from the Tzarina, and, apparently, are dwelling there now – and their Kvas, as told by many, isn’t as shoddy as that of other manlings. So, Rufus took a small throng and went to investigate, finding out that those are the "I swear too much" sons of Bretonnian families, together with the knights that had understood that the merchants of Empire are, by far, richer than they are, and that the old feodal ways aren’t that good anymore – and king Leonceur wanted a border prince in the north, because what brings more honor than stopping chaos from invading the old world? So, this band of knights made some politicial arrangements, and are now here – paying some taxes to king Leon, but in the mean time, making a lot of money by producing and selling Kvas. What surprised Rufus even more, was that there were Skaven there – Rufus had studied their inferior technology design, always thinking about the fact that if made more stable, it could be a great addition to the dawi forces – and when he saw the machinery in the keep, he couldn’t be tricked – although the knights denied their presence at first, persuasion and delicious beer aided the conversation. Clan Aiza, escapees from clan Skryre, rebels against their master’s ways, and, in short, rats who wanted to live a bit longer than your usual cannon fodder – and among them, innovative minds could also be found, and, it seemed, they had banded with knights somewhere on the road here, and were responsible for the Kvas making machinery – and, although ratmen, they were no enemies. Of course, any other hold would properly slay them all, but not so of the Karak Kant – they chose to keep this strange stronghold with it’s inhabitants a secret. So a strange alliance has formed in the north, one that is made of businessmen and freethinkers, truly a sign of a new age in the Old World.
Currently, however, there is no peace there – rumors have spread, brought by more friendly northern tribes, that strange pieces of machinery are located somewhere in the far north, some are saying that that is where Gundar has finally built his masterpiece, and Rufus is eager to find and capture it, as well as finding out his father’s destiny. Even more, he has lately had dreams as if Grungni himself was speaking! Strange machines are in his head, gyrocopters armed with organ guns, and wehicles which put empire’s steam tank to shame, gigantic cannons, able to fire indirectly as stone throwers over great distances, handguns which shoot light itself, and dreadnouhts which move over land – these disturbances give no peace for Rufus, and he now feels that the north are even more close than ever. This winter is going to be cold, long and dangerous, for those of the Karak Kant...